Shantanu Naidu, a mentee and executive assistant to veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, has launched a new project.
Naidu’s latest project is called Bookies, where people gather in public places and read silently. This project was initially introduced in Mumbai and has expanded to Pune and Bengaluru.
On December 8, Bookies will be launched in Jaipur.
Naidu announced the launch and asked people to sign up for the event. “Jaipur, it’s time. We will see you on Sunday the 8th at Jaipur Bookies. Sign up for the launch below. So excited!” Naidu wrote on LinkedIn along with a form to enrol for the event.
Apart from Jaipur, Naidu plans to expand his project to several cities such as Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Delhi and Surat.
“The whole essence of Bookies has always been to bring back reading. It seems that reading is very central to the human experience. And it’s just gone back into the background,” Naidu said as he addressed a Bookies session.
He mentioned concerns about having a short attention span and getting distracted by mobile phones. “We used to watch three-minute Reels. We can’t even do 1:30-minutes (of video) anymore….. You have muscle memory to reach back to your phone and get distracted all the time.
“But the biggest and the most authentic vivid content maker is your mind, your imagination, and there is no better way to bring it back than reading,” Naidu said.
Through Bookies, he aims to inculcate the habit of reading among people. He believes that reading as a community will help develop this habit.
“Anything you do as a sense of community has a much larger push that makes you form a habit quicker as compared to you doing it yourself,” Naidu said.
Shantanu Naidu, trusted manager of Ratan Tata
Shantanu Naidu was one of the trusted managers of Ratan Tata, who found a mention in his will. Naidu shared an emotional post on his social media handle after the demise of the veteran industrialist.
“The hole that this friendship has now left with me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to fill. Grief is the price to pay for love. Goodbye, my dear lighthouse,” he said.
